These mp3 files are from the 2007 CQ 160 Contest.
They both run about one minute and contain four contacts each.
I also went through my CQ 160 log to find any three letter suffixes that I did not have pre-recorded and put those on tape.
That will make future contacts with those stations much smoother.
It's pretty easy to set up voice files if you want to just Search and Pounce your way through the bands. Depending on the exchange, it can be done with as few as nine recorded wav files.
Those nine are: two versions of your call, the contest exchange and a repeat of that, your prefix and suffix, a repeat of the number in your call, "roger" and "thanks" or "73."
That's the easy part. If you want to call CQ and use voice files, it can stay simple, or get much more complicated.
In the November Sweepstakes, many contesters now say the station's callsign and number and then hit a button to play the rest of the exchange on tape.
I have taken it a step further, as I now contest without a mic in SSB tests, which does take a lot of recorded files.
As of now, there are over 16,000 different wav files on my computer hard drive in the shack.
(You can get a basic overview of voice file work with a power point presentation link on the upper right of this web page.)
In order to CQ and run stations with 100% recorded files, you will need to record prefixes and suffixes at a minimum. If you want to make it sound even better, you can record full callsigns as well.
The Writelog command %C will search first for a fully recorded callsign, if that's not available, then it will sound out the call with pre-recorded letters and numbers.
1x2 calls like K3-ZO sound fine; so do 2x2's like KD3-IW.
Other calls though sound a bit more robotic when using pre-recorded prefixes and suffixes.
2x1 calls like NS3T often sound choppy, because it is hard to mimic the intonation when combining NS3 and T.
Because of that, I try to record every active 2x1 call that I can find.
Anything with a three-letter suffix is tough too. Making things more difficult is that there are over 17,000 3-letter combinations between AAA and ZZZ.
You can't record all of those, so I have recorded those 1x3 and 2x3 calls that I make contest QSO's with. I also look through other logs for 3-letter suffixes that I don't have on tape.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
I use Writelog for contest software. It is the most advanced package for recorded wav files and contesting.
If you want to learn more, here is a power point presentation that I put together to give a basic overview of voice files.
It can be very time consuming to record, edit, re-record and re-edit hundreds of voice files to make them sound "just right."
Some contesters just don't like using anything more than taped CQ's - and there's nothing wrong with that.
But there are others who suffer from voice problems or who don't want to wake up the wife and kids while SSB contesting.
If you have any questions, I am happy to try to help. Email me here at radio-sport.net
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